A recent capture of an illegal fishing ship resulting in the finding of 18 miles of illegal gillnets. Gillnetting, which uses walls of finely meshed nets, has been banned in Antarctic waters since 2006 and poses a risk to almost all marine life.

The boat was detained in Indonesia after evading capture from a number of countries in the Southern Ocean. According to the Fishing Ministry, the vessel, the STS-50, had targeted Antarctic toothfish, a cod species that plays an important role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

The vessel was using up to 600 gillnets, which are extremely destructive as the holes in the netting are so small, barely anything can escape it. In addition to the 600 illegal gillnets, police also discovered eight different flags on board that the ship used to confuse authrorities, including those from Sierra Leone, Togo, South Korea, Japan, and Namibia. The ship has also change its name at least six times.

Interpol contacted Indonesia last week with a request to investigate the vessel, Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said in the statement.

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One Comment on “Authorities Capture Fishing Ship That Contained 18 Miles Of Illegal Gillnets”

I think there is really good that they caught the bandits that we’re doing this. This type of Gill net fishing is just very inhuman towards the fish species that need to be isolated and fished individually. There must be a better way of fishing that can be construed by fishermen then Gill fishing there must be types of netting that are smart Nets that can tell which types of fish they have caught and even have identification software built into the Nets to recognize what types of fish they have in the Nets and release the ones that they don’t want I mean come on this is the 21st century post green energy c h i k